Art Hall can’t claim academic protection, group says

The Kansas Conference of the American Association of University Professors decided that Art Hall, executive director of the Center for Applied Economics at the University of Kansas, “is an administrator and not a rank-and-file faculty member” and, thus, is not entitled to academic freedom to hide his e-mails, the Lawrence Journal-World reported. A student group at KU is attempting to obtain e-mails from Hall, a former economist at Koch Industries, but Hall filed a lawsuit to try to block it. Hall has also argued that he shouldn’t be subject to the state’s open records laws because his position is “self-funded” through contributions from the Fred C. and Mary R. Koch Foundation and other private donors. But in court documents filed in May, KU argued that “companies cannot buy state employees – and then keep their work secret.” – Phillip Brownlee